Comet C/2012 S1 Ison: a new image (17 Oct. 2013)

After more than one month since the previous observations, the Virtual Telescope visited again comet C/2012 S1 Ison, while it approaches the Sun. At the moment, the comet was visible in the morning sky, among the stars of Leo.

Early in the morning of 17 Oct. 2013, the PlaneWave 17″ robotic unit was slewed to comet Ison, now significantly better placed in the sky than a month earlier, around 30 deg above the horizon. The (almost full) Moon was just setting on the opposite horizon, so the sky – very clear – was quite good for these needs.

Above is an image coming from the average of 13 different exposures, each integrated for 120 seconds, with no filters to use all the light collected by the telescope. Images were then aligned to compensate for the apparent motion of the object.

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